2. Souks
Make for the souk area north of the Jemaa, where Marrakesh’s vibrant markets are concentrated. Busy and crowded, Souk Smarine, the souks’ main thoroughfare, is covered along its whole course by an iron trellis with slats across it that restricts the sun to shafts of light dappling everything beneath, especially in the early afternoon.
3. Place de la Kissaria
Buy a 60dh combined ticket at the Marrakesh Museum and don’t forget to check out the Almoravid Koubba. Situated well below the current ground level, the Almoravid Koubba (correctly called the Koubba Ba’adyin) doesn’t look like much, but this small, two-storey structure is the only building in Morocco to survive intact from the eleventh-century Almoravid dynasty, whose style lies at the root of all Moroccan architecture.
4. Ben Youssef Medersa
The most impressive medieval Koranic school in Morocco, with zellij tilework, intricate stucco and finely carved cedarwood. Notable in the prayer hall, as in the courtyard’s cedar carving, is a predominance of pinecone and palm motifs, especially around the horseshoe-arched mihrab. The inscriptions are quotations from the Koran, the most common being its opening invocation: “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful”.
5. Lunch
Le Foundouk is housed in an old caravanserai, and is now a stylish restaurant (closed on Mondays). The menu has both Moroccan and international sections, the first containing tajines, briouats and brochettes, the second more adventurous dishes such as a monkfish tajine, Thai-style chicken, or duck in sour sauce with pineapple chutney.
6. The tanneries
Head east to the stinky tanneries, checking them out at ground level and then from a roof terrace. If you want to take a closer look at the tanning process, come back in the morning, when the cooperatives are at work.